Social network provider iKarma has taken the ubiquitous “Terms of Service” document to a new level:
“4. Violations. In addition to any and all remedies at law or in equity, any intentional violation of the Terms shall give iKarma the right to immediately suspend or cancel Services or Accounts without further liability. Furthermore, User specifically agrees that any intentional violation shall result in immediate liability for liquidated damages in the amount of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) for breach of contract.”
Become a customer, violate the ToS, pay ten grand. A new business model?
(Thanks to alert reader Steve Duncan for the tip!)
UPDATE: iKarma’s CEO Paul Williams responds in the comments at Lornitropia:
“Our attorney assured us that this was becoming an accepted method of thwarting b[l]og spammers. The amount we set was set based on the $5000 it would cost to simply hire an attorney to sue a persistent spammer and another $5000 for the discovery and court costs. If you or your readers REALLY have a problem with this we would be foolish not to change it. But I think everyone is tired of spam and frustrated by the technological limits to solving the problem. Spammers won’t stop till site owners go after them. Site owners can’t afford to go after spammers till there is an economic incentive to do so. I welcome your thoughts.”
UPDATE 2: It appears iKarma has removed the $10,000 language from their ToS.
“but I think everyone is tired of spam”
I find it ironic that iKarma is hoping to prevent spammers, and yet I’m getting flooded with hundreds of spam email messages today with .gif file attachments that tell me I should invest in IKMA (the company that runs iKarma).
I actually found this place through a Google search for the same problem. Our entire e-mail network has been flooded with over 100 e-mails a day from iKarma using various aliases in the :From field and completely random words tossed into the subject line as a ploy to get past our SPAM blockers.
This company claims to be working to prevent spammers and yet it’s a major spammer itself. Someone needs to step in and take them out.
I’ve seen a few of these spam mails and can promise you that iKarma is not sending them out themselves. I’ve worked for the company and they in no way shape or form would ever do something like that. My best guess is that someone made a post on iKarma about someone who had access to a spam net and they decided it would be fun to mess with them. What better way to mess with a company than potentially get the SEC on their ass and cause a 100000 phone calls about spam abuse.
Seriously, what would a company have to gain from blatently breaking SEC laws in a VERY noticable and detectable manner, nothing. Hell from what I know the primary shareholders can’t sell stock in a company for 2 years after it goes public. And I think IKMA just went public in Jan or something.
Yeah I have had spam like that as well, however i see that iKarma has a message regarding the spam on their homepage.
” It has come to our attention that certain individuals or entities have been distributing unsolicited spam materials regarding iKarma.com.
Click here to find out more if you have been affected.”
.p.